Two Cups of Caterpillars - Life Science & STEM Education - Butterfly Kit Refill – Painted Lady Butterflies – Includes Two Chrysalis Holding Logs Instructions - Butterfly Lifecycle Observation

TI added a picture :-)I Still get these every year for the Grandkids, great grandkids, nieces and nephews. I live on the EAST coast, and one year I got the the Caterpillars all dried up. They looked burnt to a crisp. REALLY disappointed my grandkids to the point of crying. It was quite hot at the time.InsectLore were quick to respond and take care of us. Great Company. So now I buy direct from InsectLore. It costs a bit more, but I get them faster. I did get them fairly fast when I had Amazon Prime, but I no longer can afford it as I'm on disability. If you have Amazon Prime, or live close to the WEST coast, you should have no problem getting them in great shape.OLD REVIEW - THIS company is Awesome!!!I've gotten these every year for the Grandkids, nieces and nephews and a day care down the street. Out of the 5 I got this year, I had one small issue, and the company took care of me quickly. They're great. And this product is great. Every other year their kits have been perfect. Kids look forward to it.One year I did try an alternative to save a bit, but their caterpillars were all different sizes and ages which made it all out of sync. Wasn't too good of an experience. So, I returned to insectlore and I'm very happy I did.It's a riot having them name "Their" Butterflies. (Like they can tell them apart hehe). And it's so cute when they finally let them go....One of kids carefully put their finger under the Butterflies chest and it climbed aboard. Then they slowly took them out of the cage and it stayed for a moment before Flying off on its own. That's when they got up, stepped towards it and watched it fly away, waving and saying "Goodbye Daisy, Goodbye!". You could hear so much in that sweet, little voice. I could hear they were proud to have raised it, happy it was able to go off on it's own but yet sad to see it go.Until next year.....

from the 10 caterpillars only 2 went through the entire process, so we got only 2 buterflies

These were delivered quickly and were very entertaining to watch! My classroom loved watching them grow and transform. They did great and all hatched to grow into beautiful butterflies!

Students loved witnessing the metamorphosis from caterpillar to butterfly. 68 of our 70 butterflies hatched, amazingly, and we released them in the garden. This lent itself to weeks of good observations where students could sketch and write about what they saw. The caterpillars are the nutrients at the bottom of the cup and grew many times in size before crawling to the top and hanging like a J in pupa form.

I always raise butterflies. My first time to try Insect Lore, and will go back to my Nature Co. ! small one was snapped into the lid, so dead on arrival as well as another small one dead at the bottom. Plus, they're vastly different in sizes so won't pupate in general same period of time so the first ones are in danger of falling in chrysalis by the others. Hardly any food for them. And the worst is the lid! Changes needed it isn't safe for the caterpillars and stressful on them when I have to clean frass out, let alone when I have to move the chrysalis to the enclosure. Just fighting to get the lid off might damage or detach the chrysalis. Bad design, Bad investment as my chances are already lower with 2 already dead on arrival. Waste of money, I could understand if it was a weather issue, I had that once before. But this is bad packaging as company is the one that puts them in and snaps the lid on to ship as well as making sure they're approximately the same stage so they all pupate around the same time, not days apart, putting them in jeopardy. Other store has far superior quality all around and much better value for money as well as gifting to my class and students to love nature. These will not be going to school. I will be ordering from my normal supplier. It's one thing to lose them do to natural reasons. But when it's due to the company, it wasted my money and that frustrates me.

The caterpillars came very small, which is fantastic! However, one of my cups only had three caterpillars. Very disappointing as we will be using them for our kindergarten class and were expecting five in each cup. I don’t want to return them because we are running out of time to wait for new ones.

We have ordered caterpillars before from a different supplier. For whatever reason, we had a much better survival rate this time. We received 9 (not 10) caterpillars, but everything went so smoothly that I'm not docking it a star. 1 of the 9 cocoons fell from the lid very early on, but we carefully transferred it to the floor of the cage (near a wall and on a paper towel square) and it emerged just fine. We did wait until all the other cocoons were ready to transfer too. Follow the instruction booklet carefully, it's very helpful! All 9 became butterflies. I was the only one who was able to watch an emergence. It happens SO FAST. They all came out within 24 hours, but it's difficult to catch because it only takes a few seconds. When they were ready to go free, we put a hand gently in front of a butterfly and let it climb on before it flew away. I definitely recommend the cylindrical netted cage with the zipper on top if you don't already have one. My kids are 4 and 7 and it was the perfect age. When they were younger they didn't pay as much attention to the process. It also lined up perfectly with the life cycle lessons at the end of 1st grade.

Second year in row purchasing these for the classroom!! Love the easy set up and super educational for my kiddos.